LEE McCULLOCH stopped short yesterday of confessing fists have been flying inside the Rangers dressing room this season.

But his wry smile pretty much gave the game away.

Ally McCoist probably knows a lot more about it than he is prepared to admit too. Apparently, the Ibrox boss just shuts the door on his way out and lets the fireworks begin behind him. So at least he has adopted the Arsene Wenger approach to some part of his management style.

But even if the more gory details stay locked behind the scenes, through the words of a captain and his manager yesterday the world was allowed a little peak at the scale of the unrest, frustration and disappointment which has been bubbling away inside this club’s inner sanctum since the start of their first season in the wilderness of the lower leagues.

"There are things that have gone on in the dressing room which we don’t want to discuss in public,” McCulloch revealed when asked to reflect on a run of results that have heaped an acute sense of embarrassment upon all of the off-field shame which brought this club down.

“But the boys aren’t happy at how things have gone. Whether there are arguments or fights, everything will stay in the dressing room. One thing for sure is that the lads know the results have not been acceptable. But collectively we need to take responsibility.”

Tonight McCulloch intends to do exactly that when SPL leaders Motherwell become the first top-flight club to visit Ibrox since Rangers were banished to the lower leagues.

In days gone by, a third-round League Cup tie against his former club might not have gripped McCulloch’s attention so tightly. But after the horror start to their new beginning it’s the only show in town.

A quite spectacular malaise has engulfed McCoist and his players since they were dumped into the bottom tier for reasons beyond their control.

Together, they have coughed and spluttered up a string of poor results against the country’s part-timers. Indeed, taken in isolation, there was a time not that long ago when any of these humiliations might have cost the manager his job.

But McCoist bought himself some time when he helped lead the club back from the very brink of extinction. And now this fighting spirit might just be what gets them back on track.

McCoist, though, was pleading the fifth yesterday when asked to expand on McCulloch’s revelations from the dressing room.

The Rangers boss said: “I just let them get on with it. Some of the best fights for the benefit of the club, I’m not involved in. Sometimes it’s a good thing to just shut the door on the way out.

“In a way, it’s like a pot that has reached boiling point. I have a great degree of sympathy with the players because of the position they’re in. But the final answer has to be down to them. Me having sympathy for them doesn’t wash because they have to be winning games and getting us back to where we belong.”

That, after all, is the Rangers way. McCoist knows it. McCulloch does too. As do a couple of other relative old timers such as keeper Neil Alexander and full-back Lee Wallace.

But the rest of these players are made up from a mixture of kids fast-tracked from the youth ranks, some solid performers from other SPL clubs and a sprinkling of increasingly bemused looking foreigners. And these guys are learning the hard way.

McCoist added: “It’s not like other dressing rooms here and that’s what the players have to accept and learn.

“The fact so many media outlets are interested in an SFL3 club would give you an indication. We had the New York Times here the other week and the Boston Globe, as well as camera crews from France and Italy. That tells you about the animal that is our football club.

“We have to learn and we’ve had some beneficial talks that have helped myself, the coaching staff and the players.

“Lee McCulloch, Neil Alexander and Lee Wallace absolutely know the score. And I can sense the younger boys and the newcomers looking to them. It’s not going to be an overnight fix but the important thing is there is a fix.”

And McCoist – for all he was trying to talk up Well’s credentials as favourites yesterday – would love to provide some timely evidence of better times to come in tonight’s cup tie.

It is time for Rangers and their biggest hitters to come out swinging.

McCulloch said: “The newer players coming in have learned pretty quickly what is acceptable at this club and what is not. It’s only a few years since we were in the Champions League.

“Even when it was Manchester United we were expected to get a result. That is how high the standard is here. As a group we know what is expected. We need to find that winning mentality we’ve always had at the club.”

McCoist will also rely on some of the fresh-faced whipper snappers who have emerged as first-team players. On Saturday Fraser Aird and Robbie Crawford joined Barrie McKay and Lewis McLeod on the manager’s list of teenage dependables.

Tonight, though, McCoist must decide who is ready not just to be thrown in against Montrose but also able to mix it with the likes of Motherwell.

He said: “We have to get the balance between the youngsters and the good SPL players. Everybody talks about the period of Man United’s history with guys like Giggs, Butt, Neville and Beckham coming through. It was fantastic.

“I’m not saying for a minute that our boys are as good as that. But we have kids breaking into the team who will be played because of the circumstances the club is in. Just now must be the best time in Rangers history to be a young player and I have told them that.”

? Tickets are on sale until kick-off from Rangers Ticket Centre, priced £15 for adults, £10 concessions, £5 juveniles and £35 family of four.